Cold One
| Statistic | Value |
|---|---|
| Climate/Terrain | Artic |
| Frequency | Very Rare |
| Organization | Solitary |
| Activity Cycle | Any |
| Diet | Nil |
| Intelligence | Nil |
| Treasure | Incidental |
| Alignment | Nuetral |
| No. Appearing | One |
| Armor Class | 5 |
| Movement | 8 |
| Hit Dice | 5 |
| THAC0 | 14 |
| No. of Attacks | 1 |
| Damage/Attack | 1-6 |
| Special Attacks | Paralysis, Frostbite |
| Special Defenses | Immune to cold attacks |
| Magic Resistance | Nil |
| Size | M (6' tall) |
| Morale | Fearless |
| XP Value | <not in the original document> |
Description
The cold one is a human, demi-human, or humanoid that has frozen to death in the artic wastes and been left unburied. A cold one looks like a zombie bundled in furs, blankets and heavy clothing. Its face and hands are ice blue, its eyes black, hollow, and sightless and it is covered with snow. Found only in the arctic and on mountain peaks where there is a perpetual layer of snow, the cold one is a naturally occuring undead if there is such a thing.
Combat
Cold ones are usually encountered when they are seemingly dead, frozen to death on the artic wastes. They appear in the same position that they died. However, if fire is within within a quarter mile of a dormant cold one, it will rise up and unerringly seek out its source, its last wish in life being to keep warm.
The cold one will head directly to the fire, only attacking those near the flames, jealously wanting all the warmth for itself, and those who attempt to block its path. Its touch does 1d6 points of frost damage and will paralyze the appendage touched, no save. The victim must save vs. magical cold also or immediately suffer the effects of frostbite on the effected area. The frostbite will cause one point of damage per round until treated.
Cold ones, because of their incredible will and instinct to get warm and their singular, overpowering objective to reach the flames, cannot be turned by a cleric. Because they are undead, they are immune to fear and mind affecting magic as well as being immune to cold attacks.
If the cold one succeeds in entering the flames, it will raise up its arms and cry out a mournful wail of triumph, the flames rising up into a bonfire around the cold one. A round after entering the flames, the flames will give one last great flare and explode. The explosion causes 6d6 points of damage to all within 30 feet, save for half, and will put out the fire completely. There will be no trace of the cold one, for it is consumed in the explosion.
Habitat/Society
Cold ones are only found in perpetual frozen territory. A cold one thawed out by the sun loses its undead status and becomes dead forever. Although almost always solitary, entire adventuring parties and the like have been known to freeze to death and all become cold ones. Also, very unlucky people have been known to build their fires within the range of several different cold ones. Why exactly cold ones occur is a mystery. Only about one third of those who die in the cold become cold ones. Some say it is the work of an evil deity of winter while others proclaim that cold ones are the result of a strong will to survive that lingers even after death.
Ecology
Cold ones are undead and have no place in the world of the living. Scavengers avoid even dormant cold ones, sensing the unnaturalness of the beings.